These days, we awaken each morning to discover that yet more beauty has spilled out of heaven and made a home on our lawn. Color has emerged from hibernation. Fragrance hovers companionably in the air. In daytime, light and shadow frolic playfully. At evening, the translucent beauty of a moonlit daffodil makes me want to weep with wonder.
Even as we rejoice in the exuberance of springtime, we are preparing to enter the sacred days of the Triduum. Here at the monastery, we will mark these days with silence and solemnity. We will chant the ancient Lamentations. We will walk the ‘stations.’ We will venerate the Cross. The air will be bathed in a reverent hush before the awesome mystery of the death and resurrection of our Lord.
On a recent springtime day I watched a child step carefully along the ‘grounded’ end of a see-saw. He then hovered in careful balance at the center point before making his way gently down the other side.
These past weeks, we have been walking the slope of Lent. We will soon hover at the center point, where all hangs in the balance and everything is possible, where laments are chanted as trees burst into bloom, where the ‘stations’ are walked amidst flowers and fragrance.
Let us hold one another in prayer as we, with all the Church, enter the poignant beauty of these most sacred of days.
Postscript: More of Sr. Therese’s springtime photos can be found on our Facebook page. Also, a few photos from our Palm Sunday celebration are on our Community News web page.